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Army veteran closer to winning custody of child his ex-girlfriend secretly gave up for adoption

While Chris Carlton was serving his country in Afghanistan, a former
girlfriend gave his baby up for adoption without his permission.

Four years later, Utah’s Supreme Court has given Carlton another chance
to win custody of the four-year-old child his girlfriend initially
claimed was dead.

“I’m very ecstatic,” Carlton, who lives in Williamsport, Penn., told Fox 43. “This is the happiest I’ve been in four years. It feels like it is justice slowly being served.”

Carlton was working as a military contractor in 2010 when his
girlfriend Shalanda Brown disappeared during her seventh month of
pregnancy. Although the two had broken up, Carlton had been trying to
keep in touch so that he could be involved with his child’s life.

Several weeks after her due date, the woman resurfaced and sent photos of the baby to Carlton’s phone, saying it was a boy.

When he returned home to Pennsylvania, Brown claimed the baby had died.

“I`ve never felt that kind of pain,” Carlton told WNEP. “And I believe no parent should feel that pain. And for the people that have already felt the pain, God!”

wnep

Chris Carlton, of Pennsylvania, has won a small victory in his legal fight to win full custody of his daughter.

The devastated soldier tried to find out where his son was buried, but the woman refused to share the information.

But during a courtroom testimony, Brown finally broke down and told Carlton the truth: his baby was alive.

His ex had flown to Utah, delivered a baby girl, and given her up for
adoption through the Adoption Center of Choice in American Fork, Utah.
She refused to name Carlton during the adoption procedures, telling the
ACC that the man was abusive — a claim that Carlton roundly denied. When
the child was placed with a family, the dad was never given notice.

The Adoption Center of Choice had its license revoked on Feb. 21.

Carlton is now involved in two separate lawsuits challenging Utah’s Adoption Act.
The state’s laws gives a birth mother fraud immunity, even if she lies
about why she’s giving up the child without the birth father’s
knowledge.

Carlton is now challenging Utah's adoption law to try and get back his daughter.

A lower court found that Carlton didn’t have a claim to the child,
since the deadline for challenging the adoption had already passed. But
Tuesday’s state Supreme Court ruling decided that the lower court should
have taken Carlton’s constitutional rights into account.

“Of particular potential merit is Mr. Carlton’s contention, which he
clarified at oral argument, that the (Utah Adoption) Act’s imposition of
a deadline on out-of-state fathers whose home states impose no such
deadline is a violation of due process," the high court said in a
24-page decision.

The case will now be sent back to the district court, where Carlton’s
lawyer will be challenging the constitutionality of Utah’s adoption
laws.

Carlton is also one of 12 fathers who have joined a federal lawsuit
against Utah, claiming that the state’s adoption laws violated their
civil rights.

The man knows he may never get his daughter. But he says he will continue the fight.

“This is one of the first hurdles that we have to overcome,” said
Carlton. “Albeit, if I never do get my child I am not going to stop the
fight until people who are not affected by this law are outraged just as
much as people who are.”

This is how I look at it. As a mother, if I found out my child was somewhere in the world when I was told they were dead, I would move heaven and earth to get my child back. I know the argument is that the child's life would be disrupted taking them from the only parents they know, but I've yet to meet anyone adopted that hasn't wanted to find their birth parents. Those adopted parents are sitting on a time bomb as I see it since its likely one day the child will find out her biological father wanted and fought for her and was denied.

Utah has been getting away with this crap for far too long. This is only one of several cases in the courts right now and it looks like Utah is finally going to have to answer. It's legalized kidnapping!

The little girl is 4. I understand him wanting his daughter but imagine what she would go through. Being torn away from the only family she knows. I hope he gets the law changed I really do. And I hope that the adoptive parents are decent humans who will let him into the little girls life. But I feel for them. It isn't their fault and it isn't the little girls fault.

I really hope he works with the adoptive family or this child will have attachment and trust issues for life. My four yo son is adopted I cannot imagine what is would do to him. My heart goes out to all of them.

I applaud him for challenging the laws, and fighting this, and I hope some charges can be brought against the birthmom.

At this point though, the child is 4. While I understand he really loves her and wants to parent her, she has a family. A family that loves her. I would hope they would allow visits, and the two getting to know each other, but I disagree with the disruption for the child to be placed with the birth father.

We seriously looked at adoption, and I had a hard time with it, primarily because of the mom potentially changing her mind, and I coudln't do the open adoption thing. My heart goes out to this family.

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